There are three essential sources of uncertainty in the patent system: perceived uncertainty due to selective sampling (“statistical artefact uncertainty”), inherent uncertainty, and strategic uncertainty. It is only the strategic uncertainty source that should be of concern to reformers....

Innovation is an inherently uncertain process. Success is typically coupled with risk and we can only hope that those with great ideas will persevere. To encourage innovation, society reduces some of the innovation risk through structures like funding systems, regulation, and of course...